


Below Zero

by poes



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Hope It's Still Enjoyable, Horror, M/M, Romance, Voltron Exchange, Yeah It's A Lot, there's a little bit of everything in here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 09:03:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8483434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poes/pseuds/poes
Summary: Voltron Exchange 2016.After becoming trapped on an ice planet with disabled lions and the rest of the paladins out of reach, Keith and Lance must find a way to survive together, and discover how to escape.—Of all the planets in all the galaxies in the entire universe, Lance had to be stuck with Keith on this fucking freezing cold one. The wind his whipping hard and fast against his side as he trudges along behind the red paladin. His hair is plastered to his head, his nose is running, and really, all things considered, he didn’t deserve this. Not one bit. “This is all your fault,” Keith mutters, just loudly enough for Lance to hear him.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [percevall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/percevall/gifts).



> Written for the Voltron Exchange for [percevall](http://archiveofourown.org/users/percevall)! They asked for winter fluff... and I... got a little carried away.
> 
> I hope you still enjoy it even if it's not complete fluff! <3

Of all the planets in all the galaxies in the entire universe, Lance had to be stuck with Keith on this fucking freezing cold one.

The wind is whipping hard and fast against his side as he trudges along behind the red paladin. His hair is plastered to his head, his nose is running, and really, all things considered, he didn’t deserve this. Not one bit.

“This is all your fault,” Keith mutters, just loudly enough for Lance to hear him.

“What?” This is an infringement on his honor. This _cannot_ be tolerated. Lance stomps forward further so he can swing around in front of Keith.

The other man looks, somehow, worse than Lance feels. His own hair is sticking to his face, too; his nose is running, his eyes are leaking, and he looks very, very irritated, which is doing nothing for him.

“I _said_ this is all your fault.” Keith stops when Lance makes no move to get out his way, folding his arms and shivering hard enough for some of the wind-induced tears to track down his cheeks. “If it hadn’t been for you, none of this would’ve happened. Now we’re stuck here for who knows how long. The storm will probably interfere with anything the homeship is able to make, too.” He glares wetly.

Lance has so much to say, but also, he is very cold. Shivering wins out. “We just have to wait for the storm to stop, numbskull. We’ll be fine as soon as we find somewhere to camp. And this is _not_ all my fault!”

Keith stares back, long, dark lashes glossy from the wind. “Remember when Allura warned us that the storm here was constant? _Numbskull_.” He sneers slightly from over his scarf before snorting and pushing past Lance, boots sinking a little in the purple-tinted snow. “Let’s just find somewhere to camp.”

“That’s what I said!”

“Oh, _now_ you’re taking responsibility?”

Lance falters, admittedly having forgotten about the warning Allura had given them and also because he is really, really cold. With a huff of alarmingly visible air, he follows after Keith, chuffing his arms a little as he does so.

 

—

When they find shelter, it provides itself in the form of a small, cramped cave. Lavender snow is half-fallen in the already small space, but it is the only cave they’ve been able to find for however long they’ve been walking, and Lance, however many flaws he has, isn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Even if the gift horse is more of a pony with like… way too many teeth. So his mouth was ill-fitting and barely big enough for two tall 18 year olds.

He’s losing track of his metaphor.

Keith moves into the cave first with a sniffle, flexing his fingers inside his (for once) completely full-sized gloves and dropping quietly on his butt. He sighs and drops his head back against the cave wall, tugging his scarf down from around his mouth to dip against his throat. His cheeks are as red as his uniform back in the castle, his eyelashes dark and long over them, the cannula from his nose warping the color gently. He looks tired.

Lance feels a brief moment of remorse, but then Keith’s tired eyes turn to him and narrow accusingly.

In turn, he straightens up and makes a face, tossing his bag down across from Keith and flopping down beside it.

The pair sit there silently for a few moments, panting softly until they catch their breath back. Lance watches Keith’s white breath curl away from his mouth and stares, feeling himself zone out a little bit. Keith notices him looking, but Lance can’t muster the energy to try and pull an intimidating face. Normally, he’d probably already be arguing with him, glaring back _harder_ and _better_ , because he definitely _was_ better, but honestly? He’s just glad they found somewhere to sit down.

There was practically nothing around. Lance had seen a few trees dotting the horizon here and there, but always too thin and a few feet too far apart to make huddling between them an option. They’re lucky they found this place, however small it was. It’s a little hovel in the side of a boulder; Lance would call it a mountain if it were big enough to be called that. Whatever lived on this planet, it had to be covered in armor or… made of fire or something. He’s not sure how anything could survive out here.

Keith backs off when Lance doesn’t make a move to glare back; he just sighs and flexes his fingers a few more times. His mind seems to be on the same thing, because after a minute he meets Lance’s eyes again. “We need to get a fire built or we’re going to freeze to death.”

Well. He’d been trying not to think about it, but it was probably true. He tugs his fur-lined hood a little closer around his neck. “Can’t we at least wait until it’s not so windy?” he asks weakly, looking out the cave and seeing a stray leaf blast by so quickly if he’d blinked he would’ve missed it.

“The storm isn’t going to end, Lance.” Keith’s voice is annoyed and loud in the small space.

“It might get less windy!”

“It’s not going to get less windy than it is!” The red paladin pushes back onto his feet, and bends to go digging in his own bag. “Whatever, Lance. I’ll go myself. You can stay here if you’re not going to be any help.” He straightens back up; his bayard handle is in his hand. “I’m going to go cut down some branches or something.”

Lance feels his pride sting and pushes quickly onto his feet, lifting his hands defensively. As if he’d stay here while Keith went and played hero. “Jeez, calm down, prissy-pants, I’ll he–”

Keith whips around so fast Lance takes an alarmed step back. “ _Don’t_ act like I’m overreacting. We don’t know where the others are, our lions may be permanently damaged, and it’s all because _you_ couldn’t just _wait_ for Shiro to give the signal. What were you thinking?”

Lance winces, leaning back a little more and unwillingly thinking back to what had happened. It was a simple mistake; in the heat of battle, Lance had pushed Blue forward before he was meant to. There had been a plan, but Lance had impulsively tried to make the flashiest entrance… and crashed into Red, who was already not looking great. He must’ve just… jostled something wrong. Red’s whole system shut down, and she just… went tumbling down into the planet whose atmosphere they were fighting in.

He isn’t sure why the Galra would want to colonize this planet. It seemed like a desolate wasteland, and what was worse, the second Blue went diving after Red, it was like she… got disabled. All her systems shut down, too. They both went cascading towards the planet and, luckily, had landed close enough to each other to make it out and find each other. 

The lions came equipped with some emergency packs, clothing for most types of weather (including a wetsuit that had brought a brief smile to Lance’s face), and breathing apparatuses. Keith, who’d been the first out of his lion, had quickly figured out they’d better bring the latter; a few seconds outside had proven that the air here was much thinner. It was breathable, but only if you didn’t exert yourself too much.

“It’s like standing on top of a mountain,” he’d explained, through gritted teeth, when Lance had predictably tried to macho-man argue with him. “Walk just a little too fast and your lungs are gonna overwork themselves. You can breathe without it… but we need to find somewhere to stay before we do that.” He’d glared, and then bit out a short, “Better safe than sorry.”

And here they both were, with little oxygen respirators attached to their waists.

Lance stares at Keith now, how his eyes are sharp and sparking with accusation and the little tubes outside his nose go softly white as he exhales, and droops a little. “I was… just trying to be cool.”

Keith snorts, and tosses his hands up. “Well. Good job. Now we’re definitely cool.”

Ugh. Lance grits his teeth. “I _get_ it, okay? Weren’t we going to collect sticks or something?”

The other paladin gives him a long look before snorting again and turning on his heel. “Just keep up. We aren’t going far. There’s a line of trees what looks like a mile that way.” He points as the pair of them exit the cave. The line of trees is, in fact, there, though it’s barely what constitutes a line; four or five stand there, feet apart, and are thin, scraggly, leafless. Lance squints at them; they’re lit up in a lilac glow, reflected on the lights that shine in the sky. 

That was the one thing. The constant lights in the dark sky. So far, this planet seemed almost consistently in night mode. The star at the center of this galaxy was much farther than the sun was from Earth; the differences between daylight and nighttime had to be almost imperceptible here. In lieu of a bright blue sky, though, there were these purple lights that reflected onto _everything_. The snow, the sky, Keith and his already weird-colored eyes. The entire planet was tinted a shade of purple that he could best describe as... lavender. No, amethyst. No… no, it was lavender. Totally. 

Lance would call them northern lights, but they’re massive, constant, and he has no idea what direction they’re facing.

The planet would be beautiful if it wasn’t obviously fucking with them, and deadly, and blowing wind against their back. At least they’re facing away from it, Lance thinks inwardly, as Keith once again takes the lead and starts making way for the saddest forest in the universe. He follows behind, pulling his hood up over his head now.

By the time they reach it, they’re both panting again, and any natural flush that had been in Keith’s face is replaced by the bright red of windburn. Lance would wince in sympathy if Keith wasn’t still being determinedly cold towards him. Instead, he leans against one of the trees and hugs himself, watching as Keith tries to activate his bayard. It does, with some difficulty, eventually lighting up red and glowing out into the blade; Keith seems a little awkward with it due to the thickness of his gloves, but also vaguely proud of himself. 

He turns to Lance with something like triumph, and Lance can’t bite back his smirk. He looks so dumbly pleased.

Clearly, this was not the reaction Keith was expecting. His face contorts and he turns back around, facing the tree closest to him with a snap of his shoulders. Lance shrugs to himself. Whatever. 

The red paladin brandishes his blade, lifting it up high and swinging it towards the closest branch.

He’s around three feet off. The sword swings uselessly through cold purple air.

Lance snorts and his smirk turns a hint more mocking; he dips to hide it behind his hand as Keith whips back around to face him.

“I think it’s too high!” he offers helpfully.

“Come give me a boost,” Keith snaps back, turning fully and gesturing to the snow in front of him. “Let me sit on your shoulders.”

“What? Why do I have to be on the bottom?” Lance feels something deep in his stomach protest at this, and the weird look Keith gets on his face isn’t helping things. “Let _me_ sit on _you_!”

The weird look doesn’t go away, but it does change slightly. Keith’s eyebrow twitches. “I have the sword, Lance.”

“Yeah, so? I can hold the sword!”

“So… it’s _my_ bayard. It’ll only work for me, and it’s only a sword for me. Shut up, Lance, I’m cold. Just get over here and give me a boost.”

Lance frowns, but doesn’t argue any more; he’s cold, too. He stomps over and bends down, ready to piggyback the other up. He turns when Keith doesn’t immediately jump up and start climbing.

Keith looks suddenly uncertain of himself. When he looks up and sees Lance staring at him, he somehow reddens even more. “I’ve actually never done this before,” he admits. “Climbed on someone, I mean. I’ve chopped wood.”

Lance squints. The image of Keith chopping wood is a baffling and strangely interesting one, but he doesn’t have time for that. “Just get on me, Keith. I _have_ done this before. Five siblings.” He makes a beckoning motion with his arms from his bent over position. “Just hop on my back like you’re gonna piggyback, and then I’ll push you up onto my shoulders. I’ve lifted heavier people than you.” He isn’t sure why he’s attempting to brag, here, but the words seem to give Keith the confidence he needs.

He takes a flailing, awkward leap onto Lance’s back. The blue paladin gives a short yelp of surprise that Keith echoes, but Lance catches him, tugging him close with an exasperated noise. “Jeez louise, I said _hop_ , not _tackle_.” He huffs, and Keith clings a little tighter as Lance starts trying to push him up. “Loosen up, I won’t drop you.”

Keith makes a nervous sound and minutely loosens his arms. “Did you just say _jeez louise_?”

“I dunno, Keith, am I currently in complete control of whether or not you fall on your ass in purple alien snow, or…?” Lance grabs Keith by his thighs and hoists; the other paladin yelps in a decidedly un-Keith-like fashion and digs his free hand into Lance’s hair, grabbing onto it like a horse’s pommel. Lance actually does nearly drop him, but instead bites down and wraps Keith’s legs around the back of his neck. Keith hunches over and, if possible, just yanks harder. “ _Ow!_ Let _go_ , you three-year-old!”

“Don’t drop me!”

“I’m _not_ going to drop you!”

“If you drop me, I’m taking you down with me!”

“ _Will you just cut down the stupid limb!_ ”

Keith shakes on Lance’s shoulders but refocuses on the task with a nervous grumble. Lance keeps his hands pressed down on the other’s legs, firmly, so he knows he isn’t about to keel over. Keith’s hand loosens in his hair, as if in silent appreciation.

It makes something weird in his stomach twist when he feels Keith’s thighs flexing under his palms. He can feel a kind of power there, the strength in them, how it pushes his hips up and against the back of Lance’s head. Lance has done this dozens, maybe hundreds of times, to his siblings, but never to someone outside of his family. Strangely, this is somehow more nervewracking than doing it for a four-year-old he actually _should_ worry about dropping. 

Keith’s calves press gently into his chest as he works; a brief, nervous glance upwards shows the other trying to cut the branch one-handed. Keith’s eyes narrow, and he slowly pulls the hand off of Lance’s head. With a wobble that has sweat breaking out on Lance’s palms, he reaches up and grabs the limb in lieu of it. His arms flex as he works; it’s hard to see under the thick fabric of the insulating jacket, but Lance finds he is paying unsettlingly close attention.

Keith is glowing. Literally. The auroras have washed him in pale purple light that has him wearing a lavender halo from Lance’s lower point of view. The tree branches only break the pattern; blurry, vaguely straight black shadows lay over Keith’s body like stripes. He looks annoyed, and determined, and Lance’s heart beats increasingly loud against his ribcage.

His legs dig harder into Lance’s body. Lance flexes his jaw and looks back down, focusing on keeping Keith balanced so he doesn’t have to wiggle to keep his place.

In what is just, frankly, an agonizingly long time later, the branch finally begins to splinter and snap, and Keith makes a pleased sound. “Yes! Okay, look out below!”

Lance has little time to process how much of a dork he sounds like before the branch starts to drop and lands a foot or so in front of him with a hefty _thump_.

He looks down at the wood. It’s a whorled gray, like you’d see in a painting by Van Gogh or something. Lance briefly worries that it won’t burn, but Keith is too proud of himself for Lance to bring up anything that could kill his mood. Not like Keith needs another reason to be upset with him right now.

“Whoo! Okay. Let’s try to get one more.” Keith wiggles a little on Lance’s shoulders, clearly much more confident with his perch now. 

Lance is, for the first time, grateful for the wind. 

“If we have another and it’s not too heavy, we can take it with us when we decide to move.”

Lance sighs gently. “Move? You’ve got a plan?”

Keith places a hand back on Lance’s head, but doesn’t grab on; it just seems to be happy sitting there. Lance feels, strangely, like a dog being petted, and more strangely, finds he doesn’t mind that much. “Yeah… kind of. So, listen. Something took out our lions. It had to be electromagnetic, or something… it killed their systems. They weren’t shot down or anything. Red wasn’t doing well, but she didn’t actually lose all functionality until you pushed her further into this planet’s atmosphere.” Keith points at another branch and Lance, weirdly pacified, obediently moves closer to it, holding onto the other’s legs to keep him steady. Keith seems unworried. “Did you feel the jolt when we entered the atmosphere and started falling? I think… that was a force field, or something. We just need to find _what_ put out the pulse that shut them down, _destroy_ it, and hopefully… hopefully the lions will come back online. Or at least Shiro and the others can get through to us without their lions being disabled, too.” He darkens slightly. “As long as they haven’t already tried to come after us. But… Allura did warn us not to land on the planet. Hopefully, they listened to her. I’m sure Shiro would, anyway.”

Keith sounds fairly confident. Lance isn’t inclined to argue, but… “How are we supposed to find the source of it, though? The pulse thingy.” Keith’s thighs are distractingly warm around his neck.

The other doesn’t pause in his work. “I… don’t know, yet. But we’ll find a way. I know it. If we start moving in one direction, we’ll eventually stumble across something. We can’t be the only living things on this planet, right?” The question is rhetorical, but Lance feels a shiver of foreboding in his stomach.

God, he really hopes not.

Another branch falls in front of him. “So… we either come across some kind of civilization, or… or another crashed ship, or something. Something that shows we’re going in the right direction. That we’re not alone out here.”

Lance is quiet, thinking. This is… bad. This is a really bad situation he’s gotten them into. If this planet really is disabling ships, there’s literally nothing any of their friends can do to save them until they shut it down.

It’s better than sitting in a cave and waiting to be rescued by people who would, realistically, never find them. The planet wasn’t as big as Earth, but it was big enough. With no scanning technology from the lions, there would be no finding them. This was all they had.

“Okay,” he agrees, sniffling as his nose drips from the wind around the tubes there. Gross. “But we’re camping tonight, right?”

Keith nods from his seat. “Yeah. I think we need to get some rest… patch our wounds. Eat, sleep.” He pats the side of Lance’s temple with one hand as his bayard retracts back into itself; Lance supposes this is some form of communication, but lifts a hand to swat him away.

“Stop treating me like a horse. Are you done?”

“Yes.” Keith’s thighs suddenly tighten, as if he’s just realized he’s going to have to be basically picked up again. “Uh. Can I just slide off?”

Lance snorts. “And risk you kicking me in the head, klutz? No. Just loosen up.” He lifts his hands and makes to grab for Keith’s sides. Before the other can protest, he gets his hands in Keith’s armpits and pushes him up and over his head, neatly placing him on the ground with only a little (kind of) straining. Keith still isn’t as heavy as his 10-year-old brother.

The red paladin looks startled and indignant as he quickly pulls away from Lance’s arms and hugs himself, whipping around to glare. “What the hell? Don’t just pick me up like some kid!”

Lance stares steadily back, letting a smirk play across his features. “You’re small, Keith. Don’t blame _me_ for being strong enough to lift you. I’m not even sweating.” That’s a blatant lie, but the sweat isn’t from the exertion, and look on Keith’s face goes even more indignant, his eyes widening and pupils expanding as the purple light is finally behind him instead of in his face, so it’s kind of worth it. So much for not upsetting him more.

“Do– just! Shut up! You shouldn’t be wasting your oxygen on dumb things!” He is suddenly avoiding eye contact. “Let’s just get back to the cave!” Keith frowns hard and turns quickly back around, grabbing the branch he’d just cut down and beginning to march back in the direction he’d come, not looking at him as he passes.

Lance quirks a brow at how flustered he is. Did he really hate being picked up that much?

Granted, he’d just been incredibly distracted by the feel of Keith’s thighs under his hands, so maybe he doesn’t have any room to be teasing Keith about anything.

With the way that felt suddenly fresh and back in his mind, Lance feels a rush of heat under his cheeks that has nothing to do with the weather. He quickly goes and grabs the other branch, following after Keith.

Just, you know, not too closely.

 

—

 

It’s at sometime during the middle of the night they both snap awake.

Lance gasps from inside Keith’s arms, head snapping up and ricocheting off of Keith’s nose.

“ _Shit_ ,” the red paladin curses under his breath, jerking away from him and grabbing his face with a hiss.

“Shut— shut up, did you—”

“Yeah, I felt it, asshole.” Keith pushes up onto one elbow, his body heat still close enough that part of Lance’s attention is still on keeping it close.

The rest of it is on the wave of prickles that just passed over the both of them.

The fire shivers a few feet away from them, small but stubborn. They’re snuggled together near the back of the cave, as far from the entrance as possible. They’d naturally ended up here together; Lance is actually kind of ashamed of how little he’d protested when Keith had stonefacedly suggested it. He was cold, Keith was cold, together they would be less cold. And all of Keith’s ideas had seemed to work so far.

Actually, he was disturbingly proficient at surviving out here. It was like he knew all the right things to do. If the fire was safe, how far to keep it, how small… how to ration their food. Keith was… _good_ at this. Which… he shouldn’t have been.

Lance guesses if he had to be stuck with anyone on a deserted ice planet again, Keith’s chances for being chosen for a second time were pretty high.

That didn’t mean Lance felt any more comfortable with it. He’d insisted on being big spoon, if he remembers correctly (he does), and yet here he is, wrapped in Keith’s arms, warm for the first time in hours, and with Keith’s soft nose pressed into the nape of his neck. The oxygen masks are off for now; sleeping and not moving meant they didn’t need to wear them. So it was just skin on skin. And he’d been cozy.

Until three seconds ago.

“That had to be the pulse,” Keith is saying, and Lance shakes himself out of his thoughts. “It came from south of us. That has to be the way to go.” He frowns; Lance can see it in HD from how close he is. The red of his nose where Lance had smacked into it, the pull of his dark brows, the blurry violet of his eyes. Yes, there’s no denying it now; Keith’s eyes are actually purple. Purple as the lights in the sky.

Ridiculous. What the actual shit. He can’t focus.

“Y-yeah,” he agrees, belatedly, and thinks back to the pulse. It _had_ come from south of them. “But… what set it off?”

Keith’s features are grim. “Something else coming into the atmosphere, probably.” He twists his mouth around and sighs, flopping back down. “Someone must’ve come after us. I’m willing to bet if we go down to where the pulse is, we’re gonna find another lion somewhere along the way.”

Lance winces. “Pidge?”

“Or Shiro. Or Hunk.” Keith sighs. “Or Allura. It could be any of them.”

Great. Like they didn’t have enough on their plate. “At least we know where the pulse probably came from, right?”

“Yeah… the silver lining, I guess.” The red paladin is still very close. Lance looks up at him and the thoughtful look on his face, and, unbidden, the feel of his thighs under his hands comes springing to his mind. The same thighs that are pressed against the back of his own right now.

A flush runs through him. He’d known for a long time his feelings towards Keith were changing, dangerously quickly, but he hadn’t wanted to confront it any time soon. Maybe ever, probably. Especially not like this.

But he can’t deny the way he feels when just remembering Keith sitting on him has him kind of worked up. The way the arm Keith still has around him, while forgotten by the other, has suddenly become a burning brand around Lance’s stomach. How he should _definitely_ be more focused on finding a way off the planet, but how instead he wonders what Keith would do if he just leaned up and—

God. _Not the time_ , he berates himself, watching as Keith’s eyes refocus and turn to meet his own. His hair is smooshed up on one side, lopsided in a way Lance has never seen it. It makes his stomach heat up, makes him want to reach up and brush it out of his eyes.

Lance glances away, cheeks hot and red and inappropriate.

Keith continues staring at him for a long moment, and they are very close.

If he closes his eyes, he can almost imagine that he can feel Keith’s heartbeat against his back.

With gritted teeth, Lance pulls himself out of the embrace, huffing softly as he climbs onto his knees and brushes himself off. His jacket is being used as his pillow; too many layers could impede the warmth being shared, Keith had explained quietly, and Lance had been predictably reluctant to argue. He pulls it up from off the ground and starts tugging it around him. “Time to go, then?” he says.

Keith is still on the ground, watching him, but turns his head when Lance glances back at him. “Yeah. I don’t know how many hours we got, but… it’ll have to work. We should try our best to get to the beacon today.”

“If we can even find it,” Lance scoffs, making way for the snow outside and tugging his gloves on so he can scoop some of it up. He drops it on the fire to put it out.

“We will. We have to.” Keith pushes to his feet in the small space of the cave, crouching slightly to avoid hitting his head. “I guess… we’ll have to find a new cave.”

Lance swallows. “Yeah. Bye, cavey. Nice knowing you.” He’s blabbering, and the look Keith tosses him makes it apparent he isn’t the only one who knows it, but neither comment on it as Keith pulls his own jacket on and reattaches the cannula to his face. Lance does the same, shifting slightly on his feet as Keith finishes.

“Alright. South. Let’s go.”

Keith steps outside and takes the branch they’d saved with them. He’d tied it to the inside of the cave with some spare cloth from his bag, and now he uses the same cloth to drag the branch behind him.

Lance steps out after him, noting that yet again, the sun isn’t any brighter.

Only that constant purple glow.

The walk is long, dark, and quiet. 

The purple lights never seem to get any farther away no matter how far they go. The horizon is a blank white line tinted violet. Occasionally, they will pass a tree or a mountain, but for the most part, it’s a barren wasteland.

Lance hates it. This planet feels dead, and yet something in him feels hesitant about the long, obvious line they’re dragging behind them. It’s a clear cut path to them if they _were_ being followed. Not that Lance thinks they are, or anything, but... 

Out of nowhere, another pulse shoots out from directly ahead of them; not right in their face, but stronger than before. Lance feels chills go up his spine and Keith shivers hard beside him. Both freeze in place.

“Dammit,” Keith says, after a moment. “Someone else?”

Lance frowns gently. Would they really send someone _else_ after not being able to contact at least three of them?

“I dunno,” he responds, squinting down at the snow for a second before stepping up a little closer to Keith’s side. “Do you think there’s any animals or anything out here?”

The other boy huffs a small sigh and shrugs. “I haven’t seen any signs of it, but I’m not an alien… so. I’m not sure.” He readjusts the straps on his shoulder. “If there is, it’s probably small… I can’t imagine any reptiles would survive out here… maybe something small and furry? Like a rabbit.” He turns a little smile at Lance. “Why? Are you nervous?”

Lance frowns back, but moves maybe a little closer. “Not nervous… just… wary. _Informed_ , Keith. Like… this whole planet seems like a trap, doesn’t it?”

The other huffs a breathy chuckle. “Yeah?”

“Yes!” He tosses his hands up. “Think about it! We already know sentient planets are real. This planet happens to have some kind of… _pulse beacon_ on it that disables ships.” He gestures ahead of them. “And we haven’t seen any other downed ships yet, Keith. Like… I get that this is a big enough planet, but… do you really think no other life has ever ventured here before? Were we really the first? If not… where are the other ships?” He shrugs. “I dunno, man, something’s just fishy here.”

Keith’s playful smile has faded into a thoughtful frown. “... I guess you have a point.” He shifts a little closer too; Lance feels a little less lame. “I mean, it’s not like we were going to anyway, but… let’s not split up, I guess.”

Lance nods quietly, and reaches over on impulse, taking the straps from Keith. “My turn.”

The other looks at him for a second, squinting, before letting go. “Okay. I’ll take them back in a little bit. … Thanks.”

Lance shrugs. “It’s only fair.” And the monster will come for him when they _inevitably get caught up to._

And Keith can use his sword to kill it. Lance’s gun takes a little more giddy up to get going. Really, it’s a logical decision.

Totally.

Keith sighs with soft relief at the lack of strain on his muscles, Lance assumes, and keeps his place beside the other instead of moving ahead again.

The walk returns to its quietness, but it’s a little more amiable now.

—

By the time they reach something interesting, the branch has been passed back and forth a few times. Lance has it back again right now, though he knows Keith is about to ask for it.

The pulse has gone off twice since they’ve been walking, more quickly than the one from the night before, and they’ve been able to redirect their course from the little ways it’s altered. Something about this, too, bothers him, but Lance can’t pinpoint what.

But then he looks up and sees something on the horizon. Something big.

He nudges Keith, who looks up from where he’d been mindlessly walking. He slows, frowning a little. “What is that?”

“I dunno… doesn’t look like a lion.” 

The thing had a wide, purple twin-spire pointed directly up at the sky. At its base are several more, shorter spires, of varying shades of metal. Lance can see there are a few more on the other side of the main spire, and all are tilted slightly in the snow towards the center, but what is really eye-catching is the massive blue light swirling around of it. It’s the first color that isn’t a vague shade of purple; Lance squints at the brightness of it.

It seems to be thrumming, sparking in the slot between the two points at the top of the purple spire like a kind of electricity, or forcefield.

It seems to be staring, right down at the two of them.

It seems to be breathing.

“No,” says Keith. “No… definitely not a lion.”

This… this had to be the spire. They’ve reached it more quickly than Lance would’ve thought. He silently drops the branch behind him.

“So,” he says, pulling his bayard from his bag, “guess we gotta blow that thing up.” He feels a drip of worry in his stomach. “So where’s the person who came after us?”

“Good question.” Keith starts moving forward again, closer. Lance is right behind him, keeping his weapon sheathed for now.

The closer they get, the more Lance feels his stomach dropping. The top of the spires would be cresting the clouds back on Earth. This is the only monument for miles around, and it is… _angry_. Nothing moves around it, just the wind of the constant storm, but the air is thicker. Lance feels like the further they step, the harder it gets to walk, to move, to breathe. He can feel his pulse tight against his throat.

Lance glances over. He can see the violent blue reflected in Keith’s eyes, the fear building there. Keith feels it, too.

His impulse makes his hand twitch to grab Keith’s. His brain stops him before he does, scoffing at his line of thought. They’d need their hands to use their weapons. _Stupid._

Keith glances over, his eyes narrowing a little, and Lance’s pulse doubles up faster for a split second. His irises are glowing; fluorescent, washed-out blue on one side, the gentle purple of the sky above on the other side. Lance is scared, but now it’s not just of the spire.

Keith looks like he’s about to move closer.

Lance stares as he leans closer, feeling himself freeze in place. _Is he_ —

The other’s hand rests on his shoulder. He squeezes.

That… hadn’t exactly been what he was expecting. Keith holds his eyes for a second, then squeezes again, and lets go, his mouth making a funny line. He turns away, readjusting his grip on his bayard.

“Uh… come on,” he says, “let’s see if there’s… an entrance? Or… a weak spot, or something. There has to be a way to get to where the pulse is originating.” He makes way to move around the spire.

Lance nods, slightly relieved and slightly disappointed, as he follows. “It’s gotta be that blue lightning stuff.”

“Yeah.”

They move around the silent area, only disturbed by the sound of the wind blowing through the spires, oddly windchime-like in the creepiest way. Lance holds his bayard close to his chest and sticks close behind Keith.

And, as they turn another corner of the hexagonal base, there is a door.

Keith pauses, staring. Lance nearly bumps into his back before coming to a halt and peering around him.

It’s a simple enough door; metal, seamlessly attached to the purple material around it. Beside it, there is a simple looking pad; just a switch on it, presumably to open the door.

The two of them look at it for a long moment before Keith inhales sharply, exhales loudly.

“Okay,” he says. “It’s probably in there.”

“Yeah,” says Lance.

“... Okay,” says Keith.

“... Okay?” says Lance.

Keith exhales again and then turns to him, all lit up in blue and clenching his fists by his side.

“Something about this feels… dangerous. If we... ” He swallows, looking down at the snow between them. “If this doesn’t work…” He looks like he’s struggling, like he’s trying to say something. Lance takes pity on him.

“Hey.” He frowns, reaching out and taking both of Keith’s shoulders in his hands. “Dude…” Keith makes a slight face at him, and Lance sighs, tightening his hold a little. “Keith. We’re gonna be fine. We’re smart guys.” He offers up a smile, and a shrug. “Well… you are. This is all my fault… you were right.” 

Keith sighs and shakes his head, drooping a little. “No… it was just an accident, I know… it’s not like you knew this would happen.” He lifts a hand, carefully putting it on Lance’s bicep.

The blue paladin feels his heart race a little, instantly. It’s kind of pathetic.

“I… I wouldn’t have even survived this long without you.” Keith looks up at him openly, his eyes wide and purple. No… lavender. No, amethyst. No… no, it was lavender. Totally. “I…”

Lance stares back down at him, wetting his lips. Keith’s eyes drop to follow the movement, and the heat that shoots up the nape of Lance’s neck is startling. He swallows, lets his hands slide a little closer to Keith’s neck; his gloved thumbs brush the inner edges of Keith’s jacket.

“I…” Keith swallows too, audibly, his breath coming out in a white plume. “I guess I… like you, Lance. If this all goes south… I like you.”

Lance isn’t entirely sure the lack of breathable air and the weight of the steeple isn’t fucking with him. His head spins as his body leans closer, face warmer than it’s been the entire time he’s been here. “Really?”

Keith isn’t looking at him, staring somewhere between their feet. “Yes.”

_“... Really?”_

“Lance!” Keith glares up at him and pulls back, folding his arms.

“I’m sorry! Just… you really picked the time to do this, huh?” Lance feels weak in the knees.

“You’re complaining??”

“No! I just… god, is it warm all of a sudden?”

“No, Lance!”

Lance covers his face with his hand, feeling the heat coming off his cheeks. “Oh… c… cool.”

“Cool?!” Keith looks crestfallen but sounds absolutely indignant.

“No! I mean! Yeah, but… but. I mean… me too.” Lance looks up at him, peeking between his fingers. “I… you, I mean. Me too.”

Keith stares, his eyes wide, before sighing and shaking his head. His face is dusted pink, and he hunches his shoulders a little. “Well… okay. Then. That’s settled. Let’s go.”

Lance was, admittedly, not expecting this. “What? Let’s _go_? Aren’t you gonna like… kiss me, or something?”

Keith’s eyes go even wider and he makes a sound like a cat when you step on its foot. “We don’t have time for that!”

“But we have time for a confession?!”

“I’m not just gonna kiss you!” Keith gives him a push to the chest and immediately starts marching towards the door, shoulders up.

Lance scoffs and stomps after him, still feeling his face burning, strangely both content and annoyed. “This is not behavior to show someone you like.”

If possible, Keith compresses more. “We can talk about it once we get _back_.”

With a soft chuckle, Lance lets the subject drop, but he is definitely reinvigorated. “Yeah. _When_ we get back. Because we will. Like I’d let you get away without kissing me.”

Keith won’t look at him, huffing under his breath, but Lance can see the way his shoulders have relaxed. Maybe he feels a little better.

He reaches over and pulls the lever on the panel, and the door slides open.

They both recoil at the _reek_ of the room. It’s immediate, and like a punch in the gut; the air there is even thicker than it is outside. It smells like the inside of a meat locker after 2 weeks without power. Keith actually makes a faint gagging noise before covering his mouth with a hand and giving him a look, his eyes wet.

Lance swallows and steps inside; Keith is close behind him.

It’s dark, first off. There’s faint blue glow from lights along the floor, but that’s it.

What’s worse, though, is the weird suction Lance feels on his feet as he walks. Like the floor is wet, or something. Lance can’t see what it is that’s on the floor, pulling, but the shiver that goes up his spine chills any warmth he’d been feeling before. Their wet footfalls echo faintly in the dark room.

Keith is beside him, now, instead of following. The two of them stay close together as they progress. Lance notices with a faint start that Keith’s sword is out; he quickly activates his bayard, too, and readies himself.

There’s an opening in the wall up ahead. The pair make their way towards it, slowly, quietly. Their breath is audible in the complete silence. Not even the wind is there anymore, only the very occasional _drip, drip, drip_ coming from the corner of the room. Lance doesn’t feel inclined to investigate.

The air is oppressive as they move forward. There’s a thrum, not audible, but he can feel it through his feet; low, heavy, like a bass that never stops, that only plays one note.

The doorway ahead of them is open, and glowing. Lance swallows, hard, before walking through it.

On the other side is what appears to be the source of the blue lightning.

It’s bright, glowing, vibrating with energy. Lance feels almost sick upon looking at it, like when he stands up too fast and his vision goes spotty, or when he tried to read in the car while it was moving. His stomach turns a little.

It’s what appears to be a massive, glowing… blob, is the best way he can interpret it. And it _moves_ , shifting back and forth, but wires attached to it and dragging up into the ceiling keep it from actually rolling towards them. It’s so big, Lance doesn’t know how it would do so in the first place. The edges are fuzzy in his vision, but look sticky to the touch; it oozes some faintly lighter blue material from what must be pores along its surface.

And Lance knows it sees them. Lance knows it knows they’re here.

Keith is frozen on his side, staring. He doesn’t seem to be able to speak.

Lance finds he can’t, either.

The mass of energy in front of them sparks gently, a soothing blue color. In an instant, the wires attached to it light up and shoot a light into the ceiling; Lance can hear and feel the impact of the beacon going off above them, and out over the planet.

This. This was what was causing it. And it was _alive_.

It doesn’t speak, but the way it moves is almost… beckoning. Inviting. Like it wants them to come closer.

Nausea rolls at the ends of Lance’s nerves, but he stays upright, whereas Keith is hunched slightly, still wide-eyed, but his face contorted in pain.

“We shouldn’t… we have to kill that thing,” he manages, “right? That’s… right?”

Keith stares, his eyes glowing and reflecting the light of the creature. “No… no, it’s… it’s fine. Lance… it’s just trying to live here, I think. If… if we’re good, it’ll probably just let us go.”

Lance turns and stares at the red paladin instead. “ _What?_ Keith, this… this is the thing that disabled Red and Blue. This is… this is why we’re _trapped_ here.”

“Technically… technically this is _its_ home, Lance… we’re intruding…” Keith groans, soft, pained, and takes a few steps forward. “We just… have to do what it says. And it’ll let us go. Don’t you hear it telling you so?”

Lance feels a stab of fear in his stomach; he turns his eyes as far as he can away from the creature, swerving in front of Keith to stop his progress. “Keith. Keith… listen to me. I think this thing can… mind control you, or something. Snap out of it.”

Keith turns blank eyes on him, and tilts his head to one side. “Why are you being unreasonable? You haven’t even heard what it has to say.”

Abruptly, Lance feels tendrils of... _something_ pervading his mind. Pressure. He can’t really feel it’s actually there or not, but it’s like someone is scratching at his skull with a dentist tool. He winces, clutching at his head and hissing. “Leave me alone, you _blob_ ,” he snarls, pressing his palm deep into his temple and gritting his teeth.

Whispers rumble at the edges of his mind. He feels like he might throw up. _We’ll let you go if you just listen_ , they purr. _Your friend is much more logical than you, Lance_.

“Logic, schmogic,” he snaps, and then shakes his head at himself. No. He doesn’t need to talk to it.

He needs to kill it.

Turning, he pulls his bayard out, and lifts it in the direction of the creature.

 _Lance_ , it says, seeming unconcerned, _put down your weapon_.

And for a split second, Lance almost does.

He swallows, stares, and then grits his teeth even harder. “No,” he replies, and fires.

The blast hits the creature right in the center of its mass.

The thrum around him immediately becomes more intense; it’s now audible, a groaning, roaring sensation. The spire creaks ominously, and Keith is trying to tackle him.

Lance makes a noise of surprise, and flexes, shifting around to push Keith off of him. “Keith, calm down!”

“ _Stop trying to hurt us_ ,” Keith hisses in response, and Lance is, briefly, terrified. The Keith trying to get his hands around Lance’s throat has suddenly glowing yellow eyes; his fingers are claw-like, like talons in his skin, and maybe he’s seeing things, but he could swear the skin around Keith’s mouth is turning violet. “ _Obey_.”

With an admittedly unattractive scream, Lance throws out a leg and kicks Keith in the side, dropping him to the ground. “Keith! Snap out of it!”

 _“This is our home, and you try to kill us!”_ Keith snarls from the ground, baring his teeth. He looks monstrous in this light, with his glowing eyes, and Lance’s heart is pounding for an entirely different reason now.

He turns as fast as he can and runs, runs towards the creature that has such a hold on Keith. He lifts his weapon and fires again; again, the shot connects, and now its begun spurting more light blue fluid, and the spire is creaking, screaming, shifting metal and lights all around him.

 _“Lance!”_ Keith roars, hot on his heels, and Lance is scared. He is _scared_. He continues blasting, blasting, until the noise around him is almost unbearable, and the creature is sagging on the ground, immobile and angry, and oppressive, and heat, and—

Keith tackles him onto the ground, and they go tumbling. Lance drops his bayard; it tumbles, just out of reach.

The red paladin climbs on top of Lance, grabbing at him with his sharp fingers, his eyes like a cat’s reflecting in the violent blue of the room.

He looks so unlike himself, so unlike the blushing, flustered boy he’d been outside this spire, but now, so close, Lance can see Keith. If he looks past the gnashing teeth, the hair in his face, the cannula now tangled somewhere under his throat, he can see the fear in Keith’s eyes. He looks just as terrified, and uncontrolled, and…

And…

Lance does the only thing he can think of.

He grabs a handful of Keith’s hair, leans up, and kisses him.

Keith freezes, his surprise apparently overriding his murderous instincts for a split second, and Lance takes the opportunity.

He flexes his hips and rolls them, flipping their positions. He pushes Keith down onto his back with one hand and snatches his bayard back up with the other one.

Keith gasps, the air knocked out of him, and the lack of oxygen doing nothing to help him retrieve it back. His clawing hands are helpless as Lance lifts his gun and blasts at the blue creature, again, again, again, again, until he can’t hear his own thoughts, until he can’t hear the gunfire, the creature is screaming, trying desperately to claw into his mind, _stop, stop stop, STOP,_ until—

Until suddenly, with a heave, the creature dissipates onto the floor, and the room is dropped into dead silence.

Lance is panting so loudly it startles him. He drops his bayard, and, gasping, looks down at Keith, only his worry keeping him upright.

Keith is staring at him. He is normal again; Lance wonders if anything he saw was real, as now, Keith is violet-eyed, faintly freckled, with a mouth open as he gasps in any breath he can get.

Lance blinks before reattaching the cannula under Keith’s nose for him.

The other paladin blinks back. His lower lip shakes as he breathes.

“Lance,” he says, softly.

Lance stares at him, and then leans down and kisses him again.

He almost expects to be slapped off, but Keith is receptive, immediately reaching up and grabbing onto Lance’s shoulders, tipping his head. Lance lifts one hand to cradle his cheek, and Keith groans, softly, digging his nails into the fabric of Lance’s jacket. He can’t breathe, and, actually, that’s okay.

He’s so relieved. This _is_ Keith. He couldn’t fake this.

And their noses bump, and Keith jerks back with a pained noise.

Lance snaps back immediately, panting, his eyes wide. “I— I’m sorry, I just—”

“No, no, you… this morning, you hit my nose…” Keith’s fingers touch it, and he winces again. “It hurts, still.”

“Oh.” Lance swallows.

Keith blinks up at him for another moment, and then drops back against the floor, the noise that comes out of him somewhere between a sigh and a chuckle. “You did it.”

“... Yeah.”

“You actually kissed me.”

Lance stares, dumbfounded. “ _And_ killed an evil mind controlling monster? Saved us both?”

Keith redirects his gaze back to the other paladin, grinning just a little. 

“Oh... yeah.”

—

After that, it doesn’t take long for the rest of the paladins to come and find them.

“Allura said it was too dangerous to land,” Shiro is saying, now, sitting beside them both in the healing pod room. Lance and Keith are both still conscious; after everything, they actually hadn’t sustained any serious injuries, though they both were getting mental exams after this. Shiro looks slightly sick after hearing their story. “I guess I can see why, now. She was adamant. She locked down the castle. Said… that we’d have to find a way down without our ships. People have been crashing there for years… after a little digging, Pidge figured out that the planet was intentionally disabling ships that wandered too close.”

Lance frowns slightly. “But where did all those ships _go_?”

Shiro wets his lips. “If a planet has something like that creature on it… there’s not much I wouldn’t put past it. Eating ships is… not the most bizarre thing I’ve heard.”

Red and Blue are safely back in the castle; after the beacon had been destroyed, ships could fly safely within the perimeter again; Pidge had been running constant tests.

“She really had faith you guys would figure it out,” Shiro says, smiling faintly. “And if you hadn’t… well. She probably would’ve found a way down there within the next couple of days.”

Keith huffs, softly, and climbs out of his healing pod. Lance is fast behind him, feeling achey, but at least alive.

“I’m just lucky I had Lance with me,” is all Keith says, and the warmth Lance feels low in his stomach is comforting.

“Yeah… let’s just not do it again,” he responds, rubbing a weary hand over his face.

“... Most of it.” Keith corrects, but the end of the sentence tips up, suggestive, questioning. His eyes — lavender, definitely lavender — fix on Lance.

Lance squints, confused for a split second, but then remembers. The kiss.

A grin flickers over his mouth. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess we could do some things again.”

Keith moves closer, his hand resting gently on Lance’s arm, and Lance chuckles as Shiro turns his head the other way with an embarrassed huff.

“This is all your fault,” Keith mutters, leaning in.

“I know,” Lance responds, and dragging a hand into his hair, leans in to meet him.


End file.
